Am I completely out of step to think running enduro races on backcountry rides like in Craigieburn Forest Park or Wakamarina is a bit stupid as it accelerates track erosion where it would be harder/impossible to fix the trails back to their original state?

The ultimate end game is the track erosion gets so bad DOC decides people shouldn't ride them on their mountainbikes.

It seems Enduro has become a reason to have a race on every out of the way trail in the country. Not really sure that will produce good outcomes for mountainbikers long term.

Depends if any money from the event goes towards trail maintenance. If it doesn't, then it probably should. I don't really have a problem with it though. In my mind it increases awareness of awesome trails, increases awareness of New Zealand's mountain bike tourism for foreigners.

Maybe I'm out of the ordinary but I've been to Craigieburn about 8-10 times in the past year. I'm going to guess that I've been down the luge about 10 or 11 times. 15 people like me - that's 150 times, like an enduro race. Is it actually that much wear on the track if it happens once a year? It's not like a downhill track where there's ridiculously heavy braking with more aggressive tires for a full day due to practice etc.

And they canned the Enduro race at Craigieburn a few weeks ago because the track conditions (torrential rain) wouldn't have survived the onslaught of the racers - so, at least some race organisers are responsibubble.